FRESH INSIGHTS FROM AN OLD STORY

This morning I want to tell you an old story, but a true story, about twin brothers
and their descendants.

These twin boys engaged in a sibling rivalry that was so intense it would make
any set of parents thrilled NOT to have these two boys as their sons.

The hostile rivalry between these two boys began before they were born.

They struggled against each other as unborn babies with such intensity that
before birth their mother wondered what was happening.

She wondered: If they cannot get along with each other before birth, why
am I pregnant?"

She was so concerned about what was happening in her before birth that
she asked God to explain what was taking place.

This is the response God gave her:
Genesis 25:23 The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples
will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And
the older shall serve the younger."

We are not told anything about the boys' childhood, but the things that
happened when they were either teens or men make it impossible for me to
imagine that it was good times and experiences.

From the moment of birth, two things were obvious: first, the boys were born
in conflict, and second they were very different.

The first to be born was Esau, but his brother Jacob was holding Esau's
heel even as they were born.

So Jacob was named "the heel catcher" which was not a good name--it
meant someone who deceived.

At birth Esau was hairy all over with a reddish complexion.

That hairiness continued into manhood as a distinguishing difference
between Esau and Jacob.

These twin boys grew to be completely different men.

Esau was an outdoors man, a hunter and an adventurer.

The word used to describe Jacob meant "complete."

To make the situation even worse, the father [Isaac] was clearly partial to
Esau and the mother [Rebecca] was partial to Jacob (Genesis 25:28).

The parents' favoritism and partiality made a bad situation worse.

Instead of the twins growing closer together, they grew further apart.

Their competition with each other grew to be just plain hatred when Jacob
deliberately took advantage of Esau and then later stole from Esau.

After a calculating Jacob used deception of his father to steal the family
blessing from Esau, Esau planned to kill Jacob when their Dad died.

I do not believe it is any exaggeration to say these two men hated each
other.

The descendants of Esau became the nation of Edom, and the descendants of
Jacob became the nation of Israel.

Generations later the nation of Israel was delivered from Egyptian slavery by
God under Moses' leadership.

As the people of Israel were in the wilderness, God gave them this
instruction:
Deuteronomy 2:4,5 "You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of
Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; do not provoke
them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have
given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession."

I find this a very insightful, interesting statement from God.

Long before God gave Canaan to Israel as its land, God gave the territory
of Edom to Esau's descendants.

These people were the blood descendants of Jacob's family--they were
his twin brother's people.

Because God gave them their land, because they were descendants of
Jacob's twin brother, Israel was not to take one inch of the land.

There are several striking contrasts:

The descendants of Esau settled on a land given them by God long before
the descendants of Jacob lived in Canaan.

The descendants of Esau had kings long before the descendants of Jacob
had kings.

Israel was to show respect for the Edomites and their land because they
were descendants of Jacob's twin brother.

There is also a striking similarity between the problem that existed between
Jacob and Esau.

Even though God told Israel to be careful and to show respect to the
Edomites, in future generations Edom and Israel hated each other.

As Israel lived in Canaan for a long time, there are numerous incidents of
conflict between Israel and Edom.

Hundreds of years after Israel lived in Canaan, after lots and lots of conflict,
the prophet Obadiah gave a brief prophecy to the Edomites. I want you to
consider just a few verses of Obadiah's prophecy:

Obadiah 10-14 "Because of violence to your brother Jacob, You will be covered with
shame, And you will be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, On the day
that strangers carried off his wealth, And foreigners entered his gate And cast lots for
Jerusalem--You too were as one of them. Do not gloat over your brother's day, The
day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their
destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress. Do not enter the gate of My
people In the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day
of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth In the day of their disaster. Do not stand
at the fork of the road To cut down their fugitives; And do not imprison their survivors In
the day of their distress."

This prophecy was given by Obadiah likely at the time that Judah was destroyed
by the Babylonians.

There had been a long, long history of hate between Israel and Edom, a hatred
that dated all the way back to the lack of respect Jacob and Esau had for each
other.

The territory that Edom occupied was very mountainous and shared a
common border with the tribe of Judah.

When Jerusalem fell to a foreign army, Edom had a ring side seat, and they
were delighted to see Israel "get theirs."

Because their territory was protected by its mountains, they felt very safe as
they gloated over the disaster that was consuming Israel.

They were happy to see Israel enduring so much humiliation and
suffering.

Nothing was too bad for Israel!

God gave them some serious warnings and a horrible promise because Israel
was their brothers.

Warnings:

Do not gloat over Israel's sufferings.

Do not loot Jerusalem after the enemy leaves.

Do not kill Israel's refuges who are fleeing.

Do not imprison Israel's survivors.

The promise:

I, God, promise you that because of your attitude toward Israel in her time
of disaster, I will destroy you.

You will be covered with shame and cut off forever.

"Explain all that." I cannot.

"Was not God upset with Israel?" Yes.

"Was not Israel suffering because they had not followed God?" Yes.

"Did not God, by his specific promise, let this happen to Israel?" Yes.

"Why is God so upset with Edom when Israel has been so wicked?" Edom's
attitude was everything God did not want it to be.

God held Edom responsible for her attitude toward Israel.

I see a basic truth: God's decisions do not justify a wicked attitude toward other
people.

When we have been blessed by God, it must change the way we look at other
people.

That is basic to godly existence.

We never try to play the role of God.

We always understand that we are people blessed by God.

God has not given us a license to hate other people.

Our world is filled with hate.

Our world is filled with people who hate people.

God did not ask us to hate, but to love.

That is a fundamental contrast between people who belong to God and people
who do not.

People who belong to God love other people, even if other people hate them.

People who do not belong to God feel justified in hating people who hate
them.

You doubt the contrast? Consider these statements:
Matthew 5:11,12 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your
reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were
before you."1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag
and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not
provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things.

There is a fundamental contrast in the man or woman who belongs to God
through Jesus Christ and the man or woman who rejects God. The person who
belongs to God has some basic understandings about life and people. (1)
Understanding # 1: "I do not belong to this world--life is not measured by physical
possessions or accomplishments. (2) Understanding # 2: "Everything I have available
to me is a gift from God." (3) Understanding # 3: "In all I have and all I use, I must act
as God's caretaker. It is not mine. It is His. I just briefly manage it for Him."

God asks us to love all people throughout the world. I urge you to be a good
manager for God. I urge you to care about what happens to people. I urge you to
never forget that the greatest gift God has given you is the crucified, resurrected Jesus
as a Savior.